Thirty Times
by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
Summary: Each time meant something. Thirty drabbles for thirty different times. For sick-atxxheart's "100 Times Challenge" at the HPFanfiction Challenges Forum. Various characters and various periods. vii. Lily Potter.
1. james potter

**A/N: **I own nothing. For sick-atxxheart's "100 Times" Challenge for the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenge Forum.

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**i. james potter**

**laughed**

James Potter laughed as he held little Harry high above his head.

He blew loud kisses on the baby's tummy, lifting him into the air as if flying was the most natural thing for the child.

However, he had completely forgotten that the baby had just been fed. With the last little gurgling giggle, Harry burped and spat up right into James' open mouth.

His first reaction was utter shock — followed by peals of endless laughter as Lily ran into the room, taking a picture before he could wipe off his face.


	2. dorcas meadowes

**A/N: **I own nothing.

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**ii. dorcas meadowes**

**cried**

She had cried many other times before. But this time—

_Caradoc. Gone._

_Just gone._

—was different.

It tore her, ripped her guts apart. She felt the loss deep in her belly where it lay, the product of one single night growing inside a woman who didn't want it, the man who had fathered it now—

"—_Missin' fer three months._"

Moody's voice echoed in her head as she sobbed and wept and she sent a vase and a bronze figurine crashing into a wall.

This was not what she wanted.


	3. albus dumbledore

**A/N: **I own nothing. For sick-atxxhearts' 100 Times Challenge for the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum.

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**iii. albus dumbledore**

**dreamed**

He dreamed of her laugh, her beautiful voice, her love of sweets.

_In his nightmares, he heard her scream as those Muggle boys destroyed her._

He dreamed of his face, similar to his own but younger, of his eyes that were as blue but far more stubborn than his own.

_In his nightmares, he heard him shout, "I hate you, Albus! You ignored us! YOU LEFT US!"_

And he dreamed of his blond hair, his slender hands, his smile, his voice whispering in his ear, "We _are _the greater good, Albus."

_In his nightmares, he heard him curse his baby sister in anger, killing her instantly. _


	4. sirius black

**A/N: **I own nothing. For sick-atxxheart's 100 Times Challenge on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Community.

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**iv. sirius black**

**kissed**

Twelve years since.

"_Come here, McKinnon!" She jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist as he kissed her wonderful, sweet lips._

Twelve years since.

"_How's my favorite godson!" He kissed Harry on his rosy cheek and lifted him high in the air. Lily gracelessly snorted. "Your _only_ godson, Padfoot."_

Twelve years since--

"_The Potters!" He raised his glass, leading the wedding party in a toast for the couple. "Lily, may no one ever question exactly why you decided to wear white on your wedding day!" She gasped with laughter and he gave James a big kiss right on his mouth. James spluttered and wiped his face as Remus and Peter roared hysterically. . . . _

It had been twelve years since he had last kissed. He never knew if today would be the day, but he waited. Whenever they would spare him his soul, he remembered.

And he clung with desperation to those kisses from his past.


	5. marlene mckinnon

**A/N:** I own nothing. For sick-atxxheart's "100 Times Challenge".

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**v. marlene mckinnon**

**hugged**

She tapped her wand against her bleeding wound and uttered the Clotting Spell to seal it back up—

"Shit!"

She rolled her eyes as Sirius entered the bathroom, examining her shoulder. "For Merlin's sake, what the hell did you get yourself into?"

She winced. "I h-had — _AHH_!" She moaned as she moved to a fresh burn on her side. "I had tea and biscuits with Mulciber and Rosier, if you must know." She turned and raised her eyebrow incredulously. "What the hell does it look like I got into?"

Sirius drew her close to him, hugging her body gently. He touched her sealed shoulder with his forehead. "I hate it when you fight them, McKinnon."

She closed her eyes and leaned back into him. "You're such a girl, Black."


	6. peter pettigrew

**vi. peter pettigrew**

**killed**

"YOU?_ NO!"_

Caradoc's booming yell shook his brain. For a split second, he made no moves against his once-upon-a-time comrade.

And then reality kicked in.

There was a fight, a struggle for wands and who could curse the other wizard first—

"_Expelliarmus!_" He cast it the same time that Caradoc cast his.

But his hit first.

"_Petrificus Totalus!_"

The bigger man froze and fell, board-like, to the ground. Peter stood above him, watching him, his eyes fearful and nervous.

Caradoc looked at him as if asking, "Why?"

He sweat, feeling his Master's cold voice wind its way into his brain, squeezing him, suffocating him—

"_Your loyalty can only be shown when you kill for me those that trusted you once before, Wormtail._"

—Seducing him.

He pointed his wand at Caradoc.

"_Avada Kedavra!_"

And, numb and trembling, he set about Transfiguring his very first kill.


	7. lily potter

**vii. lily potter**

**screamed**

She screamed.

She didn't care that he was bloody and broken, that he had gone on some blasted mission at Moody and Dumbledore's beckoning, that he had returned alive, if not less for wear.

She cared that she hadn't known. That she had woken up in an empty bed, slathered in sweat and hysterical with fear and every time she rubbed her tummy, she could feel James' absence . . .

_And he'd never know._

She tore into the room, charging the bed upon which he lay.

He sat up and smiled — and she slapped him.

"_YOU BASTARD!_"

"Lily, I'm sorry," James tried to hold her back, to cling to her fists as she pounded and sobbed, clawing at him like an animal.

"How could you do that to _us_? _WITHOUT TELLING US?_"

"Lily—"

"We needed you!" She hated the desperation in her voice. It was the pain of _notknowing_, of thinking he had already died before she had been able to tell him. They had been trying for so long!

She broke down, her fists dissolving as he pulled her to him, gently rocking them as she wept.

"We? _Us_?" he whispered in her ear.

She sobbed. "I thought you'd be gone, and you'd never know."

He grasped the back on her head with one hand, and touched her stomach with the other.

"You are?" His voice broke.

She pulled away, and nodded. And he grabbed her head in both of his hands, crying as he kissed her, promising never to leave her again.


End file.
